This is welsh log number one.

So I decided to start learning [Welsh]. In [study advice from a latin student|my most recent writeup], I mentioned a desire to learn a celtic language, with a preference toward it being a dead language -- I did mention, however, that Welsh was on the table. Well, it is Welsh that I've settled on. There are a number of reasons for such a decision. Firstly, I wanted to learn something more ancient, because my "secret agenda" is to come to something closer to [proto-celtic]; the pre-[Christian] and even pre-[Roman] [Celts] interest me immensely. Which is why I wanted to learn Old Irish initially, because it's OLDER and thus COOLER. But I am really drawn to modern Welsh for some illogical picturesque reason, after hearing someone speak it I felt enchanted.

So I was chatting with a friend about it, and he told me that Welsh is really good for "unlocking" the [Celtic] languages, because there is a lot of cross-pollination between them all, and it's easier to learn than the other ones. This is what pushed me over the edge. So I downloaded a bunch of [PDF] books, I'm going to get the textbook "colloquial welsh", I'm going to study from them, do [Duolingo] for pronunciation and vocab, and try to immerse myself in welsh books. I know roughly how much effort it takes to learn a language. I should be able to do this, if I don't lose

It sounds very beautiful, I think it sounds much prettier than [English]. There's something strangely hypnotic about it.

This is my third day of learning Welsh. I got through the first [Duolingo] unit, I've read up and listened to audio regarding pronunciation ofthe [consonant|consonants], [vowel|vowels], [diphthong|dipthongs]. I am having a really really hard time with the letter "ll". I'll get it eventually, I'm sure, but I've watched pronunciation guides and I'm still just unable to do it without aspirating so hard my cheeks and lips flutter (which I imagine isn't the correct way to speak).

I think learning a language without noun [declension|declensions] will be a breath of fresh air. I cannot tell you how deeply irritated I feel when I have to look at a sentence in Latin and piece out "yeah so that's either nominative or accusative, which means that this is dative, which means this and that, and so the sentence means this and blah blah blah" and after I'm done I find that I still translated it wrong after spending four minutes on a single sentence and it's like. Dude. How did anyone ever speak this bastard language.

Currently, my study plan looks like this: Read the books and pdfs thoroughly, listen to pronunciation guides, make flashcards of all the vocab, do duolingo when bored, and hope that I stay interested long enough to see this through. I know Welsh is scarcely spoken, but I think it would be a fun challenge to try to interact with Welsh speakers online. There's not very many places I can do that with Latin, and I don't really want to do it with Latin anyway.

This is my first Welsh daylog. More to come. Stay tuned.

November 19, 2024 (log)